Russianspeak

In the collapse of the Soviet Union, which has left Russia suspended between communism and democracy, words become elastic. Either they stand for something that has yet to exist, or their meaning is bent to meet the objectives of warring political factions. Here is a short guide to Russia's propaganda campaign:

-- CONSTITUTION: A relic not worth defending. The 150 legislators who barricaded themselves in Moscow's White House last week claimed to be fighting against "Yeltsin's anticonstitutional regime." But the Constitution dates back to 1978 and was conceived when "parliament" was little more than a rubber stamp. The document fails to distinguish between the executive and legislative branches of government, offers no coherent foundation for lawmaking and has been amended over 300 times. The reason for parliament's loyalty to it: thanks to its inherent ambiguities, the Constitution serves as an ideal instrument for hamstringing Yeltsin.

-- DEMOCRACY: Everybody's favorite Western-sounding word. The rebel legislators used it, but their aim was the antithesis of democracy -- to create a new form of dictatorship that would restore the authority and privileges they had lost. Yeltsin too has little claim to the term, particularly last week when he shut down newspapers, outlawed opposition parties and disbanded local legislatures.

-- ELECTIONS: What elections? In the ones scheduled for Dec. 12, candidates will be running for offices in a legislature that does not yet exist, guided by a new constitution that has yet to be approved and competing in districts that have yet to be drawn up. Voters, moreover, are completely unfamiliar with key issues in the campaign and befuddled by the hundreds of parties that now exist.

-- PARLIAMENT: Not the real thing. Unlike the nascent democracies of Eastern Europe, Russia has not held a parliamentary (or presidential) election since the fall of communism. Result: the parliament is dominated by unreconstructed communists who were elected three years ago to represent a Russia that was still part of the Soviet Union, a country that no longer exists.